Retro Files: Port Morris Branch 2008

Author: Control , Date Posted: 2009-12-22 23:20:36

The Port Morris Branch was an active railroad until 1998. Illegal dumpers and neighbors had long used these tracks as their own persona toilet though, so much so that the railroads had to equip their locomotives with snow plows year round to get through the debris.


10 years after the railroad stopped running and a mere 6 years after our last visit to these tracks, we went back in to document what had to be one of the most disgusting locations in NYC.

Abandoned cars on the site of the former Westchester Avenue yard.


Walking North, smashed fences





Street crossing the tracks was built in 1940. you can tell the stone work is much older than that below the concrete though.


Trash dumpsters towards the north end


Exposed old building foundation


Rusted out iron that used to hold signal and power cables.


Name etched into the stone a long time ago.


Typing it up in the trash fill


The DOT needs to get on this - ironwork peeling away after decades of neglect from the bottom of one of the street crossings


Graff along the tracks





Entering St, Marys tunnel


With the track ripped out, flooding has made it impassible


You do not want to wade in this crap.


Muck Grime


No you're not seeing things - that's a sharps container and dirty syringes. Either someone dumped medical waste here or a junkie was living it up.